Sera's New Secretary
by Traingham
Summary: Mistress Sera could use a new assistant–one that could make her a good cup of coffee in the morning, preferably. Trigger makes some damn good coffee. How unfortunate...
1. He can do that?

001- Resignation

"He resigned?" This here was a question of disbelief, because servitor units did not simply resign from their duties—the EDEN did not approach Geetz and offer him the position to be Sera's personal attendant with the option of turning it down for other pursuits; that was his assigned duty. Resignation was unheard of, and speaking frankly, who the hell was he to make that decision on his own terms?

Yuna looked over the slip of parchment that had been found posted against Geetz's door (How old fashioned of him), glanced at Sera to gauge her sister's stoic expression and responded with a tentative nod.

"Looks like it." Yuna very much wanted to laugh, but for the sake of Sera's dignity she chose to squash the impulse before it could take hold. Still, "What did you do to him?"

Any way you looked at it Geetz was the perfect servitor— always obedient without question, and quick to attend to Sera's every whim and decree, whether it be seemingly inconsequential tasks like the preparation of her morning coffee, her afternoon tea, and the occasional nightcap (only he was privy to the last one), or essential duties like keeping her posted on council meetings and the like. Never once did he hint at any dissatisfaction with his position.

"Nothing has ever changed in our daily interactions." Sera stated coolly. "I've only held him to carrying out the necessary tasks and nothing more. In comparison to the burdens you place on Gatz—"

"Burdens? I do no such thing." Yuna denied the offhand accusation indignantly. Gatz was only too happy to help her with everything she asked of him. Everything. "Gatz likes to be helpful, so I assist him with being helpful by being in constant need."

"Yes." Master at sarcasm that Sera was, it was almost impossible to tell when she chose to employ it. "Of course."

"Anyway," Yuna went on sweetly, "You'll be needing a replacement, won't you?"

"Seems so." Sera replied, at that moment becoming quite aware that Geetz had taken his leave without the decency of preparing her a cup of coffee before doing so. "How does Gatz prepare your coffee?"

"I don't do coffee, actually."

Sera's left eye might have twitched. "Of course you don't."


	2. Lounge Talk

002- Fireworks

Today was a good day, and that meant a lot on the colony dubbed Elysium, because to claim to have a good day on a place that decidedly claimed to be incapable of offering anything but perfection was to say that there were days that were not so good...which would imply the denied existence of bad. Now, EDEN council members Veronica and Rebecca were not the sort to gossip (lies)—that would be unprofessional—but word going around the building was that Geetz resigned from his position as Sera's attendant.

"He can do that?" Rebecca inquired of Veronica guardedly, not wanting to come off as ignorant of such matters. "You know, quit?"

Veronica did not answer her immediately, instead opting to slurp from her cup of coffee—a noise rising from the back of her throat when she did that could have indicated anything from negatory to barely suppressed ecstasy. That Veronica did this all while narrowing her eyes to near slits could have been taken in any way, really.

"Okay, what?" Rebecca thought she was trying to pick a fight.

"Good morning!" Luckily Yuna's cheerful greeting prevented misunderstandings from escalating violently. It also kept the two council members from going any further with their unsavory subject of conversation, which could not have happened at a better time because Gatz and Sera were accompanying her, and Sera was looking slightly...off. Off in the way one entered their bedroom after a long day and thought to themselves "That book on the shelf looks off somehow."

"Good morning, Yuna!" Veronica, ever the politician, greeted the gentle mother unit. Her eyes swiveled to regard the cold one, adding, "And you as well, Sera."

"Bad day?" Rebecca questioned Sera against all other more advised persuasions of judgement available for selection at that given moment, and Veronica's sharp side glance could not have made that any more apparent.

Sera's response came so quick that she almost came off as annoyed—"What?"—but she was Sera, so that would have been up for great debate.

"Nothing." Veronica went in for the save. "It's just unusual to see you in the cafeteria, Sera. You usually have Geetz bring you your morning meals, don't you?" An Oscar worthy performance of feigning ignorance if ever there was one.

"He resigned." Yuna chimed in without a care in the world. "So Sera has to settle for the instant stuff." She pointed to the drab coffee dispensing machine in the corner of the room, which suddenly seemed quite malevolent.

"He can do that?" Rebecca tossed the question in quickly, the ache of wanting an answer still sore in her mind from earlier. She was ignored.

"Bleh." Sera elected to show her distaste in a rare moment of unguarded disgust. Coffee appeared to have been a serious subject for the gynoid. "I am in no position to choose. I will take what I can."

"Try this." Veronica offered her own cup for sampling.

Sera's nostrils twitched. This aroma, it was unmistakable. "Freshly brewed coffee." Sera eyed the cup wantonly. Well, as wanton as she could express through her cold, calculating eyes. To the others in the room she looked ready to make the cup explode with her mind. "A rich aroma. Who brewed it?"

"Why are you worried about that for?" Veronica waved the cup around enticingly. "Why don't you try it first?"

"Fine." Sera accepted the cup from the council member and brought it to her lips for a slurp, and OH MY GOD. This flavor. This body. It was unlike anything Sera had ever experienced before and she wanted more.

Shluuuurp! Lump after lump of the elixir traveled down her throat without reserve.

Sera drained the cup, ignoring the look of "what the hell" that contorted upon Veronica's lovely features as the last of her morning ambrosia was stolen from her. The colors in the room were now so much more vibrant—the world was alive with something more than she had witnessed ever before. Her heart was beating with a newfound rhythm and the gynoid could feel it traveling from her chest, down her stomach and into her hips.

Sera wanted to dance. Sera felt the irresistible urge to express her love for this coffee with her body.

"It's Trigger's personal brew!" Rebecca then told her, slurping from her own cup of coffee.

Sera wanted to die. Sera wanted to express her newfound self loathing and, by extension, her loathing of the one called Trigger with the ultimate offering of her life.


	3. The Recruit

003- High Demand

The Master held a deep yearning in his heart for all of the things that reminded him of his youth; for the sweet and nutty smell of peanut butter ("I would like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."), for the touch of something raw and unrefined between his fingers ("It's called clay."), and even to hear the passages of tales of old. ("It's 'You shall not pass'. You need to say it with more conviction!") The ageless father of Elysium now pined for the taste of coffee—specifically Columbian Coffee, and authentic beans, too. None of that artificial crap that they sell in the coffee shops that line the streets of the main city like gas stations.

It was a demanding task, but Trigger had long ago come to the conclusion that The Master's tastes were nothing but demanding, so what was deemed demanding for most had become standard fare for the blue purifier. One visit to Ciel's lab for consultation, a night in the library for information on the climate and soil of Columbia, and a week in the controlled agricultural area allowed for that demand to become possible. The Master was extremely pleased and grateful for the fruits of Trigger's labor—as were Thomas, Albert, Cain, Claire, Rebecca, and Veronica. The entire council of EDEN was absolutely taken with Trigger's coffee, which set him up with the task of making their morning coffee every other day of the week.

"You know what you've become, right?" Trigger recalled first commander Nero's question to him on their last lunch break together. "EDEN's bi–"

"Shut up, Nero!" Trigger hissed to no one in particular, coming out of The Master's personal garden with a sack of his coffee beans tucked under one arm. "I'm sure this is just temporary." He muttered under his breath, though honestly he wasn't even sure if that would be the case given the raving reviews (Any form of praise from Master Albert was not to be taken lightly). There was cause for relief however.

Yuna had not gotten wind of this, and as long as that remained true–

"Trigger."

The purifier dropped his sack to the floor on reflex and pivoted sharply on his left heel to come face to face with the one person he dreaded even more so than he did Yuna. They both stood there, staring into each other's eyes for far longer than any two people should be comfortable with before Trigger broke the heavy silence in the only way he knew how.

"Sera."

This had become something of a ritual between them, really.

"Loitering here instead of attending to your duties, I see." Sera began with the usual line of contempt.

"And, as usual, you have enough time on your busy schedule to seek me out and lecture me whenever I am around. What do you do all day, Sera?" Came Trigger's riposte. "I'm beginning to see even more of you these days than I do Yuna."

Ignoring that second part, Sera replied with, "You're about to find out." Which, taken out of context and location to a darker, more secluded place could have easily become something oddly suggestive.

"Wait, what?" And Trigger was vaguely aware of this fact.

"She wants your coffee." Yuna's voice whispered huskily from beside his ear before two tanned arms wrapped around his waist. "I want your coffee."

Trigger's heart sank. "No." He whispered, his handsome face now resembling something that would make Edvard Munch green with envy.

She knew.

That statement, however, deeply disturbed Sera. "You don't do coffee, Yuna." And she was going to ruin this moment for Yuna even if it killed her.

Yuna did not receive this well. "I'm adventurous, Sera!"

"No." Trigger whispered once more.

It would not be the last.


	4. Captive, maybe

004- Decisions, Decisions

"He can do that?" Having been explained the situation by Sera and Yuna (Who was not asked by Sera to assist in laying things out so much as it was that she insisted on volunteering information of her own accord.), Trigger had, by necessity, asked the question that had undeniably been asked by almost every other person who got wind of Geetz's resignation. Unfortunately for Trigger, two things got in the way of him obtaining a satisfying answer–one of those things being that Sera could not be terribly bothered in any way to invest some immediate effort in matters pertaining to the one called 'Trigger', so the satiating of his curiosity was not attended to by her at that time nor were there plans in her head to do so at some point thereafter. The second thing was that Yuna derived a sort of guilty pleasure from seeing the lost look on the blue purifier's face, so it occurred to her that the natural course of action to take would be to be as unhelpful to him as possible so as to keep it there for her sustained delight.

Yuna might've had issues.

With Sera being far more content to stare back at him from the other end of her expensive looking desk, leaning back in her expensive looking arm chair with one leg folded over the other, and a steaming cup of his coffee held in one hand, Trigger was left with no other option than to keep asking questions until she cracked open her mouth to offer more information. One question being, "Why am I here?" He glanced over his shoulder at the other mother unit leaning over the headrest of his chair with one elbow–also holding a cup of his coffee in her other hand and slurping just loud enough to reach his ears, which brought him to his second question. "Why am I making everyone coffee?"

After that question went up in the air Gatz tried drinking his own cup of coffee as inconspicuously as possible.

"It's good coffee." Yuna answered the second half of his question, winking to him after doing so as she took another slurp.

"This coffee is better than most." Sera affirmed, somehow making it sound like a backhanded insult when she did, though it could have just been that Trigger's impression of her made it impossible for him to take any statement from her mouth as anything but unkind. "Now I am placed in a rare position of indecision."

The purifier quirked a brow. "What exactly are you stuck on?" His eyes momentarily strayed to the view of the city behind Sera. "Do you need my advice?"

"I don't need your consultation." A flash of emotion streaked across Sera's face when she replied. It made Yuna smile. "You are the decision, Trigger. I need a replacement for Geetz, one that can satisfy my..." She could not have averted her eyes in a more suspicious manner. "...needs."

"...Uh huh." Trigger, once again, was vaguely aware that this conversation was sounding strangely suggestive. "You're trying to figure out if I can satisfy these...needs?" The pause wasn't needed, but he figured he may as well have fun with it.

"You've already satisfied one of them." Said Yuna in Sera's place. "Might be better to say that you did more than satisfy it."

Sparing Yuna a stare for that second remark, Sera turned her attention back to her prospective replacement. "I'm curious to see if you can meet the rest of my needs."

"It doesn't seem like a hard decision then." Trigger said without realizing just what he said. It took a few seconds for him to catch it. "Actually, on second thought, I'm committed to other things right now." He felt that it was self explanatory, but Sera seemed expectant to hear more–maddeningly so. "You know...with me being second commander at Hunter Headquarters..."

"Yes, well, that can be easily resolved by having someone take your place." The cold mother unit waved off his concern without a moment's consideration. "Your partner, Alia, can take over."

Yes, naturally she would be well aware of the fact that Alia was his partner (That much wasn't a secret to anyone), but that didn't keep the sound of her name leaving Sera's mouth from unsettling him. It made him feel vulnerable for some reason–that, and hearing her say that he could be easily replaced sent an unpleasant chill up his spine.

Sera might have smiled, because it then occurred to her at that moment that she too liked to see Trigger taken by such uncertainty.

Sera might've had issues.


	5. Try me

005- In the Dark

"No." Trigger was firm about this decision and he wasn't going to budge from it. "You can't make me, Sera." But this decision had nothing to do with whether he would be the one to take the position that Geetz had vacated–that much had already been unanimously decided for him, without even the decency of providing an illusion of choice for him to mull over. One conference call from Sera to the other council members and The Master from her personal office, a quick vote, and Trigger had officially been made that which Geetz had refused to be one day more.

Both mother units enjoyed the array of emotions that went through the purifier's face during the course of the conference call– immensely, in fact; Yuna far more open about the immensity of her enjoyment of it than Sera, naturally, though it would be a memorable day for the universe to see Sera slapping Trigger on the back repeatedly, cheerily congratulating the purifier on his promotion.

Yuna meant well.

What Trigger was concerned with now were the two articles of clothing that had been brought into the office for him by a young woman attired in black slacks, a white dress shirt and sleeveless blazer– those two articles being what looked to be a form fitting, white tank top with an extended shirt tail and chestnut colored harem pants that came with boots attached to the legs. Sera was going to dress him like Geetz, wasn't she?

"This will be your new uniform." Sera informed him from behind her desk, a new cup of hot coffee held in one hand. "That blue armor of yours will no longer be necessary."

Even Gatz could not help but feel as if something important was being confiscated from the purifier after hearing that last statement. He almost wanted to protest the decision, but frankly he did not want to place himself as a blip on Sera's mental radar.

"You know..." Yuna regarded Trigger, one of her eyes narrowing as if weighing an important subject in her mind. "I think he would look better in black anyway." She concluded to Sera, the look in her playful eyes now hardened with a decisive stare.

Sera leaned over, one brow quirked ever so slightly. "Black? Like you, you mean..." An aspiring actress mistress Yuna did not make.

"Why don't we trade?" Yuna's question made Gatz blanch from his seemingly immovable spot three paces behind her. "You take Gatz, and I'll take Trigger." If only she did not appear so willing to actually go through with it, her sister might have humored her.

Sera's "No" came surprisingly quick, with Trigger's "No" coming not a moment sooner, though that left the two sisters confused as to what that "No" was directed at. Yuna did her best to look genuinely offended by what might have been an outright rejection. Sera took that moment to raise her cup to her mouth for a deliberate slurp, eyes calculating as always.

"You will wear the uniform I have provided for you." Came her firm decree upon lowering her cup of coffee, and many in Elysium would have found themselves unable to oppose her under such an uncompromising gaze. Trigger was not one of th– "And if you insist on refusing to do so, I will dress you myself."

...Well then.

"I have things to do." Yuna suddenly announced. "Let's go, Gatz."

"Huh?" Trigger felt his safety line going taut, and straining as Yuna hurried Gatz out of Sera's office. The moment the door closed behind 'Mother One', Trigger felt the safety line snap. He was in the den of a lioness now.

"Nothing leaves." Sera ordered to an unseen recipient, and the room obeyed her, engaging the lock on the door and blotting the view of the city behind her, leaving the two in complete darkness. The only sources of light visible were two sets of eyes meeting one another, with the set of red eyes making its way around the desk hidden in the darkness to close the distance between itself and the set of green eyes.

"Know this, Trigger." The red eyes looked down on the set of green eyes. "This will be very pleasant for me."

The set of green eyes rose from its original position, placing it almost two feet over the opposing set. "I'll make this uncomfortable for you."

"This room is sound proof."

"I just need your ears, Sera."

When the door to Sera's office opened again Sera was the first to come out. Yuna watched on with Gatz in total silence as the normally composed mother unit appeared to stumble in her walk, halting a few paces from the door to lean a hand against the wall and collect herself before resuming her trip to what looked to be the outdoor balcony. Trigger came out a moment after her dressed in his newly issued servitor uniform, his expression almost smug.

Looking down at the lack of blue now touching his skin, the purifier sighed to himself. "A pyrrhic victory for sure."

Yuna merely clicked her tongue. "I would have gone about it much differently."

Trigger flinched away from her general direction. "Didn't you have things to do?!"

"I would have done it while you were sleeping."

Yuna meant well–honest.


	6. Reploid Bod

006- Definition

There, it happened again and this time Yuna knew with absolute certainty what was going on and why it was affecting her so much. Honestly, for the second generation female humanoids the subject of what reploids considered attractive in one another was hotly debated, because there was really nothing else that interesting for them on Elysium–sexually anyway. Yuna and Sera were made by the second generation, and spent almost all of their waking hours among the second generation; by definition they weren't even considered reploids or related to them in any way (at least that's what council member Albert absolutely insisted on) so reploid exposure was minimal–more so for Sera than Yuna because of...reasons.

"It's those...bulges." Yuna whispered to her ever present shadow, Gatz. She pointed to one of Trigger's visible biceps, now flexing because Rebecca was seemingly incapable of maintaining the delicate balance of her body under the influence of gravity in his presence, which placed him in the consistent position of helping her up. The council member was always ever so grateful for his assistance, falling against him for a moment as she reacquainted herself with the floor beneath her feet—every single time. Yuna had yet to ascertain just why visions of Rebecca falling down a flight of stairs always correlated with these moments, but every time they did come to mind it made a little more sense.

Ignore that. That was unnecessarily dark.

"What of those bulges, mistress Yuna?" Gatz inquired.

Yuna looked to her attendant with an order of, "Flex your arm." At which he did as she ordered, producing not so much as a noticeable lump. This, however, was natural, because in a contest of strength Gatz (and by extension, Geetz) could not be rivaled regardless of his physical form. The servitor was, after all, capable of transforming himself into a dragon, and at the end of the day muscles were nothing more than aesthetic when compared to the capabilities of flight and fire breathing. Game, set, and match.

Yuna did not appear to care about those facts. "Sera, you clever girl." The mother unit leaned forward from her perch on a balcony overlooking Trigger and Rebecca as they interacted obliviously before her watching eyes. "Why is that uniform so distracting now?" Was it always so skin tight?

"Yuna." Came Sera's flat voice from behind.

Yuna did not bother to turn around. "Yes, Sera?"

"You have duties to attend to. Why must you waste your time spying on my servant?"

"Because The Master is down there with him." Yuna replied, finding her sister leaning beside her on the balcony rail not a moment later. The Master had dropped a folder on the floor as he was passing Trigger and Rebecca, and could not be bothered to kneel and pick it up himself. Trigger, courteous as always, kneeled to pick it off the floor for him and—

"Mistress Yuna, your mouth." Gatz alerted her.

Yuna wiped the drool from her lower lip and groaned. "Those bulges on his stomach. They're so...strangely mesmerizing. What do you think, Sera?"

"Trigger would survive a fall from the stairs." Sera answered cryptically, spying from her perch on the balcony overlooking Trigger and The Master as they interacted obliviously before her watching eyes. "Curses."


	7. Break a Leg

007- Two legs

Hlodovic Kilian did not stand out as a warrior in his village, and it was of a popular opinion that he would meet a dull, quiet end on his deathbed with nothing left behind for the coming generations to remember him by. He was painfully aware of this fact, especially on this day when the village elder decided to pair him up with Olivia Bethild for the hunt–the fiercest female warrior of the village and his long time crush since childhood. None of the other young men were ever particularly worried whenever Hlovodic happened to get paired up with one of the especially attractive women for the hunts because they knew he didn't have it in him to leave a lasting positive impression, so while they did see him and Olivia off at the main archway with words of encouragement they didn't truly mean it. It was simply a matter of courtesy—in the coming hundred years they would start telling people to break their legs...for some reason.

Predictably misfortune did meet Hlovodic on the hunt, for while he did his best to keep his composure around Olivia in an effort to project just the sort of demeanor that would catch her eye—if even for a moment—partway through the walk of the woods his right foot fell through a patch of loose soil and he was sent tumbling into a blueberry bramble patch. The berries were extremely ripe on this day, so Hlovodic's coat of leather armor, his helmet, his breeches and his gauntlets were covered in a blue dye so thick that it refused to come off regardless of how hard he wiped at himself.

Olivia had a laugh at his expense, however, her kindness would not allow her to deny the blueberry warrior a helping hand—and in the moment that he grasped her outstretched hand and she found herself pitching forward, she regretted it. The blueberry duo set out from the crushed bramble patch, reduced to a spiny blueberry smoothie from all of the writhing that ensued in their effort to untangle themselves and climb out of the depression, and after taking in the sight of one another they laughed.

"You two may want to turn back. An abhorrent reaver is in the immediate vicinity."

Now it wasn't that Hlovodic and Olivia did not understand the words that were spoken to them as that would have been impossible–Juno made sure to calibrate his speech patterns so that when he spoke their language it was done so with the proper intonation and dialect. No, what gave the two warriors pause was that the person that addressed them was not shackled to the earth by gravity like they were; his (Her? Might it have been a her?) arms were also not attached at the shoulders like theirs were, and the person was clad in a bulky coat of armor that made them appear quite intimidating.

Actually, it might have just been the hands–so large that this individual could have crushed both of their heads if they so pleased, and almost as if to volunteer for a demonstration of the raw savage power of those hands a large mechanical wolf came barreling toward them through the trees, made a lunge for the mysterious purple haired golem and promptly had its head caught in the palm of one of those hands. The hand closed, the reaverbot died, Juno turned to face them with the usual smile and the two warriors cried out.

You might be interested to know that what transpired immediately after this short sequence of events would be recorded in history—the original tablet depicting the event could be found at the main library on Kattelox island. That aside, this isn't the story of how Hlovodic and Olivia became know as the golem hunters at their village, or how they had been wed to each other and went on to lead future hunters toward becoming the first unofficial hunters of abhorrent reaverbots on Terra.

This is the story of how Juno made the brave step of requesting a pair of legs from Mistress Sera so that he could walk among the carbons without being thought of as a monster, and how hundreds of years into the future a young hero in blue digging armor would question why there was a spare body in the wall...because seriously...


End file.
